Avi Lewis

Early broadcasting career

Between 1996 and 1998, Lewis was the host of The NewMusic, a music magazine show on MuchMusic and Citytv. He also served as MuchMusic's political specialist, doing extensive special events coverage for the channel, covering the 1993 Canadian federal election and the 1995 Quebec referendum.^[6] Lewis won a Gemini Award for Best Event Coverage.^[7]

Canadian Broadcasting Corporation

From 1998 to 2001, he hosted CBC Newsworld's current affairs discussion show CounterSpin, where he presided over 500 debates. He was later the host of Counterspin Sunday. Lewis began hosting The Big Picture with Avi Lewis in the autumn of 2006 and On the Map in 2007. In the latter program, Lewis conducted interviews with Ayaan Hirsi Ali and John Bolton, among others.^[8][9] He was a panellist on Canada Reads, which aired from March 2 to 6, 2009, where he presented, and successfully defended, the winning book, Lawrence Hill's The Book of Negroes.^[10]

In June 2007, CBC Newsworld debuted On the Map with Avi Lewis, a daily (Monday to Thursday) half-hour of international news commentary. On the Map's half-hour time slot was replaced with a half-hour summary of the daily hour-long show Politics by Don Newman.^[11] During the same time period on CBC Television, The Hour, hosted by George Stroumboulopoulos aired.^[12][13][14]

Al Jazeera

Inside USA was first telecast on Al Jazeera English on February 8, 2008, with the episode "Politics of Race". Al Jazeera describes Inside USA as "an in-depth look at the real issues at stake in the US presidential election."^[15] "Politics Of Race", released on February 22, 2008, focused on the situation in New Orleans and the disenfranchisement of Black voters.^[16][17] "Native Americans", released on March 1, 2008, focused on Lakota Sioux separatism and the social and economic issues surrounding the Lakota Sioux, Navajo and the Shoshone peoples.^[18][19] The last few minutes were devoted to the role online videos play in US elections, including a clip from "Yes We Can".

Following the presidential election, Lewis became a co-host of Fault Lines in 2009, a program known for investigative storytelling examining the United States and its role in the world.^[20]

Documentary films

In 2004, Lewis and his wife Naomi Klein collaborated on The Take, a documentary that detailed the "recovered factory" movement in Argentina. The Take, winner of the International Jury Prize at the American Film Institute festival, was nominated for four Gemini Awards. Collaboration between Lewis, Klein, and Brendan Martin led to the creation of The Working World/La Bas foundation,^[21] a non-profit microcredit aimed at cooperatives active in the United States and Argentina.^[21]

From October 8 to 18, 2007, Lewis hosted the ten-part international documentary series Why Democracy? in Canada.^[22]

Lewis directed the 2015 feature-length documentary This Changes Everything,^[23] which finished second in the audience voting, for the documentary category, at the 2015 Toronto International Film Festival.^[24]

With his organization, The Leap, Lewis co-wrote a short film titled A Message from the Future with Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez in 2019. It was nominated for Outstanding News Analysis: Editorial and Opinion at the 41st News and Documentary Emmy Awards. A sequel, titled Message from the Future II: The Years of Repair was also co-written by Lewis and was released in 2020 by The Intercept.^{[25][26][27][28]}

Academics and journalism

He was a journalism and media studies lecturer at Rutgers University in New Jersey and is currently an associate professor in the geography department of the University of British Columbia, where he teaches courses on social and political change, communication and documentary filmmaking.^[29][30]

He is a contributor to news sites including The Breach.^[31][32]

Leap Manifesto

In September 2015, Lewis, Naomi Klein, and others launched the Leap Manifesto, which proposed broad changes to Canadian society and economics in order to respond to climate change through a policy framework that also addressed issues of wealth and income inequality, racism, and colonialism in hopes of influencing the policy debate during the 2015 Canadian federal election campaign.^[33][34] In 2016, Lewis spearheaded a motion at the NDP's federal convention which would have had the party endorse the manifesto. In the end, the motion was amended to refer the manifesto to constituency associations for debate. Lewis and other manifesto signatories launched an organization to promote the manifesto's vision in 2017, called The Leap, which operated until 2021 and was a key convenor of Canada's Pact for a Green New Deal in 2019.^[35]

2026 NDP leadership campaign

Lewis is a candidate in the 2026 NDP leadership election. He launched his campaign on September 19, 2025, being the first candidate approved to run. He held his campaign launch in Toronto.^[50] His policies include establishing a Canadian Green New Deal, supporting Palestinian rights, creating a "public option" for groceries, building public housing, implementing a moratorium on AI data centre contruction^[51], and expanding healthcare access.^[52][53] By the end of December 2025, his campaign claimed that it had raised nearly $783,000.^[54] By the end of January 2026, it was reported that his campaign had raised over $1,000,000.^[55] During the campaign period, Lewis was endorsed by current and former MPs Libby Davies, Leah Gazan, and Svend Robinson, and former provincial politicians including Gary Burrill and Flor Marcelino.^[56]

Television

Films

Summary

Leadership elections

More information Candidate, First ballot ...

2026 New Democratic Party leadership election

Candidate		First ballot
		Votes	%
	Rob Ashton
	Tanille Johnston
	Avi Lewis
	Heather McPherson
	Tony McQuail
Total valid votes
Rejected ballots
Turnout
Eligible voters		~100,000[63]
Source: v t e

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Federal elections